We’re now several days into MLB’s Annual Winter Meetings in Nashville.

And once again — for now — the Orioles activity is limited to a New York radio rumor that was promoted by a Los Angeles television station.

The report went like this: the Dodgers and Orioles are close to a deal that would send Matt Kemp and Jonathan Broxton to the O’s for Erik Bedard.

Which leaves me to wonder this: how close IS close?

It’s kinda like being pregnant, this baseball trade business. Either it IS a deal, or it’s not, right?

Most everyone else on the ground in Nashville is saying the Orioles are nowhere NEAR making a deal of any kind.

Meanwhile, the Tigers ceased being "talkers" and dove into the deep end of the baseball trade game as "doers" (kinda like Sheila Dixon, but that’s for another day). And the Marlins once again loaded up on the kind of young talent that has brought them two unlikely World Championships over the past decade.

Now, we weren’t of the mindset that the Orioles were going to acquire the likes of Dontrelle Willis and/or Miguel Cabrera this week. But a few "mini-blockbusters" involving Erik Bedard and Miguel Tejada could make for an interesting week.

It’s funny, because when I think of the Marlins and Tigers, I think of two organizations and two fan bases that pretty much suck. And yet, they both have played in the World Series in the past five years.

So far, all is quiet on The Warehouse front.

Maybe McPhail can spend some of that Confederate money while he’s in the deep south.